PRTB Report: Hand-outs for Landlords, rent-hikes for tenants

The Anti-Austerity Alliance has today commented on the report Rent Stability in the Private Rented Sector released this morning by the PRTB. Ruth Coppinger TD said:

“In the face of a crisis in the number of people becoming homeless through economic evictions, rent hikes and the lack of social housing, incredibly, the PRTB publish a report looking to bring ‘stability’ to the market by ignoring the needs of tenants and suggesting tax-breaks for landlords.

“For tenants this report offers absolutely nothing. There are families being made homeless on a daily basis because of rent hikes, yet despite this and the evidence from other European countries on how rent controls could work, they say that rent controls would make the problem worse. Their only fig-leaf to tenants is that landlords should give them 3 months notice rather than one months notice of a rent increase, this will not affect affordability of rents, it will just give people a longer run-in until they become homeless.

“Landlords already get massive subsidies from the state through rent allowance schemes, now the report suggests giving a further hand-out to them. This report ignores the actual homelessness crisis which is on-going in the country.”

Paul Murphy TD said: “This report was carried out by DMK Consultants, formerly a wing of Davy Stockbrokers, which has always stood in defence of the interests of the wealthy in society. That they are pushing for tax-breaks while ignoring the plight of tenants should come as no surprise.

“Rent controls are needed immediately to stop the flow of people being forced out of their homes through rent increases, along with a reversal of all cuts to the rent allowance payments. This is just a first step to tackling the housing crisis.

“Against the backdrop of this crisis, the obvious solution is the building of social housing. The government’s plans in this direction, as outlined in the budget, are minuscule. There are currently nearly 100,000 families on the housing waiting lists, yet the government’s response is to build 10,000 new social houses between now and 2018. The housing list will increase by more than 10,000 in that timeframe.

“The government should invest in a publicly funded plan to build the necessary amount of social houses."